New Experience, and Lesson Learned

Well, I can check another new thing off my list - although this one, I didn't want on there at all....Traffic Court!

Yes, that's right, I got a ticket. I was driving through a neighborhood here in town and didn't come to a "full and complete stop" at a stop sign, or the official wording on my ticket disregarding a stop sign. No, I didn't stop completely nor did I run right through it, I did the famous "rolling stop" and I got caught. The cop was hiding in an unmarked vehicle up a cul-de-sac, parked outside of a house. Sneaky if you ask me.

Today, was my court date. I had no idea what to expect. I had all intentions of pleading "not-guilty" mainly because I was mad at the cop and thought the judge should know how sneaky he was by hiding. On Monday night, I called my dad and we talked through things, and he talked to me about what I could expect. Later that night and the entire next day, I had this terrible feeling, I didn't have peace about going to court and I couldn't figure out why. I knew I had to go to court, and if I had to go, I didn't want to be terrified, but I didn't have peace. So, I asked God...Point Blank. "God, why have you not given me peace about going to court? I have prayed for it, and none has come!" And He so clearly said:

I will not give you peace, because you are not doing what you know is right.

Well, crud! Definitely not what I wanted to hear! Deep down, I knew He was right (as He always is). I needed to plead guilty because I was in fact, guilty. I had convinced myself that a "rolling stop" was good enough, when it's not what the law says. This was not my time to get on my soap box and tell the judge my thoughts on the cop and why I thought he shouldn't have been there. None of that mattered! I would never have known a cop was up there if I had come to a complete stop a the stop sign. So I decided to do the right thing and plead guilty if I needed to.

So today, my mom (who I asked to go with me) and I went to the courthouse. I was nervous, my heart was pounding. We walked into the courtroom and were there for about an hour. My cop, was not the nicest guy on the face of the earth. He was rude and talked down to me. Thankfully I didn't have to appear before a judge, which I am very happy about, and the cop did reduce my fine since I showed up. It definitely was not a fun experience, I do not want to go back, and have stopped at every stop sign since that day.

So, there we go, my first visit to Traffic Court, and while it was an experience, it is one that I do not need to go through again.